Merry Christmas from the Koops!

Here's wishing you a very merry and blessed Christmas to you and your family! Our first Christmas in our new home has been wonderful (and extremely snowy)!

We've had a record snowfall for the month of December in Minnesota...

Francis has been growing bigger and bigger (5 months old now)...

We decided to have a "Little House on the Prairie" Christmas this year, which allowed us to do some fun activities for home school, read aloud the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (great for history lessons), and keep our Christmas gifts modest and simple.

The girls got custom-made period dresses for Christmas (along with a rag doll kit)...

The boys got a football and baseball mitts, and the Dangerous Book for Boys, which has tons of great activities like how to make your own go-cart, and how to build forts and tree-houses...

We made a valiant attempt to make molasses candy like the Ingalls' did using snow (but they turned out a little mushy)...

And of course, after an Advent season of preparing for Christ's birth, we enjoyed welcoming Him into our hearts again this Christmas and had a great time decorating our tree with popcorn and cranberry garland and all of our ornaments...

Today, Dec. 1, we once again remember our Henry Blaise...

December 1 is the anniversary of our Henry's death and we continue to remember him with sorrow for our loss here on earth, and yet with great joy in knowing he is with Our Lord. If we "run the race, and finish the course, and keep the faith" as St. Paul says, we will be reunited with Henry and we will spend far greater time together than we ever lost on earth.

Our remembrance video of Henry...

We love you Henry!

For details on Henry's marker design, see here.